The Utah Insurance Department licensed 60 new full captive insurance companies in 2017, in comparison to the 68 that it licensed in 2016.
The department’s year-end statistics show there are a total of 417 Utah-domiciled captives as of 31 December 2017.
There were also three new cell captive formations last year taking the total number of active cell captives to 69 and the total number of captive companies as of year-end 2017 to 486.
Travis Wegkamp, Utah Insurance Department’s captive director, commented: “We experienced a steady stream of new license applications throughout the year. While not seeing the high numbers of new licensees we experienced a few years ago, that is to be expected given the soft market for commercial insurance and recent regulatory/tax changes at the federal level from the PATH Act.”
He continued: “I feel the current optimistic outlook on the U.S. economy, as evidenced by strong GDP growth and record stock market gains, will result in increased interest in captives for companies seeking an alternative risk financing approach.”